


in this world of white noise, you're my favorite sound

by sin_poet (water_poet)



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Aftermath, Canon Compliant, Costumes, Cute, Drinking, Drunken Flirting, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Hotels, Late Night Conversations, Safer Sex, Stress Relief, so I guess I gotta do it, there's no smut in this fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-18 20:42:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20319202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/water_poet/pseuds/sin_poet
Summary: In which Eva is pretty, Oli is nervous, and everyone is just grateful to be alive





	in this world of white noise, you're my favorite sound

**Author's Note:**

> Some more EtN Eli, this time smut cuz I have no self control
> 
> DAILY REMINDER THAT THESE FICS EXIST IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WHERE THERE IS NO CHEATING OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT
> 
> Also gentle reminder that these are still characters who exist in the world where ETN actually happened and this fic is not meant to reflect the real people portrayed within. Don't make people uncomfortable. It's not hard.

The hotel was nice, especially so given its lack of murderous creatures and literal death traps.   
  
Following the events of the night, the three survivors had agreed to stay in a hotel nearby while the whole fiasco was sorted out. That was, assuming the house was still even around with no owner to feed off of.  
  
The front desk staff seemed only slightly suspicious of the group's attire, but if they suspected anything they didn't voice their concerns as Joey booked two rooms, one for himself and Oli and a separate one for Eva.  
  
"You okay?" Oli asked as the group rode the elevator up to their floor.  
  
Eva shrugged, picking at a stray thread on the cuff of her jacket. "I'm...tired, really. I just want to sleep for a thousand years. But I'm afraid of what I might see"  
  
Oli nodded. "I know what you mean"  
  
Eva didn't say anything else, but she did move a little closer to Oli, and when he put an arm around her he felt her relax into the embrace.  
  
"But it's alright now. I promise. You're safe" he assured her.  
  
Then again, maybe they weren't. Maybe they hadn't made it out, and this was all another twisted trick of the house. Maybe they, too, were locked in straitjackets in some forgotten, dusty room. Oli would be lying if he said he was sure of reality and fiction anymore.  
  
But Eva leaned towards him, resting her head on his shoulder, and it certainly felt real.  
  
The ding of the elevator caused all three of them to jump, and Oli swore softly under his breath, instinctively stepping in front of Eva.  
  
"Guys, it's okay" Joey said, half to himself as he chuckled weakly.  
  
He glanced at how close Oli and Eva had gotten and raised an eyebrow. Eva stepped away, eyes downcast.  
  
"I don't know about you, but I'm going to take a shower. Like, a two-hour one. I can still feel that...that _place_ on me" Joey said. There was a murmur of agreement, and as Joey unlocked their door, it occurred to Oli that Eva had been blushing.  
  


* * *

  
It was dark again, and Oli was wide awake.  
  
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Justine being shoved into the coffin or Lele writhing in agony as the electric chair shocked her to death. He could hear their screams, he could see Eva's face when she came out of the challenge, broken and hurting and afraid.  
  
She'd seemed so fearless, all that time - calm, collected, confident. And yet she had been just as afraid as he had, afraid of being left to rot in an ancient house from a hundred years prior.  
He was glad it had been her.  
  
Oli sighed, staring out the window at the hotel parking lot.   
  
"I'm sorry" he whispered, to no one in particular.  
  
The clock ticked in response and somehow he found himself going back to Eva in his mind. He wondered if she was awake, gazing glassy-eyed at the same cement lot, thinking about him.  
  
"Ridiculous" he muttered to himself. Joey shifted in his bed across the room, muttering softly.   
  
Oli ran a hand across his face and shook his head. Without quite realizing it, he carefully walked out of the room and found himself in front of Eva's door. The number 357 stared back at him in brass lettering.  
  
He raised his hand to knock, but before he could the door opened and Eva was there, tired and strong and perfect.  
  
"Eva! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean - "  
  
She shook her head. "It's okay, Oli. I don't mind"  
  
"Oh" he said dumbly.  
  
A palpably awkward silence hung in the air as he stood there, not sure what to say as Eva studied him, her big brown eyes still alight with the clever spark that had saved his skin too many times to count.  
  
"Can't sleep?" she asked, leaning against the doorframe. She'd changed out of her costume into a t-shirt and shorts from the hotel shop, and the clothes hung loosely over her slender frame, just barely revealing the dips and curves in her body.  
  
Oli shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah"  
  
Eva took a few steps back into her room, inviting him in with a small nod. "And Joey?"  
  
Oli rolled his eyes in spite of himself. "Sleeping like a brick"  
  
Eva laughed softly and the gentle sound was like a cool breeze on a hot day.  
  
"Make yourself at home" she half-joked, turning on the tiny coffee maker positioned by the minifridge.   
  
Oli looked around. Eva's costume was wrinkled in a pile on the edge of her bed, and her laptop and phone (they'd all managed to recover their things after they mysteriously appeared in Joey's car) were sitting on the nightstand.  
  
"You want coffee? Decaf?" Eva asked. "Tea?"  
  
"I'm alright" Oli replied. The thought of eating anything almost made him sick as he thought back to the grisly deaths he'd witnessed.   
  
_Shane choking on his own blood, Sarah's cold, dead eyes -   
_  
"Oli?"  
  
He jumped, and Eva put a hand on his arm. Her skin was warm even through the thick cloth of his shirt.  
  
"Sorry. Just...distracted, I guess" he said.  
  
"Stop apologizing" Eva said. It wasn't really a command. It was a request, a plea for a reprieve from the horrors of the previous night.  
  
Oli opened his mouth to apologize again but quickly closed it. Eva sat on the bedspread and he sat next to her, chest aching.  
  
There was more silence, but it wasn't so awkward this time.   
  
"It _was_ a really nice house" Oli remarked.   
  
To his surprise, Eva laughed, loud and bright and he found himself joining her, the timbres of their voices blending smoothly together until they were both reduced to soft giggles, faces red and eyes damp.  
  
"It was" Eva agreed. She gestured to Oli's shirt and braces. "The costumes were fun, too"  
  
Oli nodded. "Lost my coat, though. Shame"  
  
"Now that we're back, you can just order another one. God, I'll be so happy to have Amazon back" Eva said.  
  
The coffee machine beeped and the both jumped towards each other.  
  
_Andrea gasping for breath as the smoke burned her flesh, Timothy wincing as the crowd jeered and booed, demanding his blood -   
_  
"Coffee's ready" Eva said, but neither of them made to move away from each other for another few moments. Finally, Eva stood, but instead of going to the coffee machine, she opened the fridge and pulled out a green bottle.  
  
"Honestly, I'm not feeling the coffee. How about this?" she asked. On the bottle was a label with a fancy French title printed in some looping gold script.  
  
"You sure? It's always expensive at hotels" Oli cautioned.  
  
"It's all on Joey's tab, right?" Eva asked playfully. "Pretty sure he owes us big time anyway"  
  
It was hard to argue, so they poured the drinks in paper cups and tried not to spill on the bedsheets.  
  
"How are you...how are you feeling, Eva?" Oli asked, noticing the way she glanced owlishly around the room, cautious and wary.  
  
Eva took another sip of wine. "Honestly? Sick"  
  
_GloZell writhing on the floor, blood staining the carpet - _  
  
"Yeah" Oli agreed. "Don't know if I'll ever eat again, to be honest"  
  
Eva poured herself another cup and stared at the dark liquid, her gaze watery.  
  
"I don't know if I'll ever be able to do _anything_ again" she confessed.  
  
Oli's first instinct was to disagree, to insist she was Eva, a survivor, fearless and brilliant, and there was a whole world she'd earned her way back to.  
  
But he couldn't, because he felt the same. They'd watched their friends die, and now they were jumping at tiny noises and drinking wine of out flimsy paper cups and he wondered if they would ever be able to make it back to some semblance of normalcy.  
  
"Well, whatever we do or don't do, we'll do it together" Oli said, and the words felt right in his mouth.  
  
Eva smiled and she looked how Oli imagined Aphrodite might have when she rose out of the sea.  
  
"Together, huh?" she asked. "You sure?"  
  
Oli's ears felt warm so he glanced away, setting his half-empty cup on the nightstand. "Be hard not to, right?"  
  
Eva shrugged. "I'm glad we made it" she said, patting his knee.  
  
Oli smiled, putting his hand over hers comfortingly. "Me too"  
  
The wine was sweet even in its bitterness and Eva was looking at him in her soft, bright way, and he wondered if she always looked like that or if it meant something more.  
  
_Ridiculous_ he thought to himself.  
  
"Oli?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
Eva shifted slightly so she was looking Oli more directly in the face. "When we were in the basement, all chained up...you were saying not to leave you...did you really think I would leave you there?" she asked.   
  
Maybe she wanted to hear yes, to feed the angry gnawing guilt in her stomach that she could have done _more_, done _better_.  
  
Oli remembered the basement, remembered the musty smell of mold and dried blood and the man screaming like a foghorn. He remembered the cuffs biting into his skin and the way his entire body felt like it was made of lead when the first key didn't work. But most of all he remembered Eva, golden in the lamplight, the way she looked him in the eyes, you are going to survive, _we_ are going to _survive_.  
  
"No" he said. "I knew you wouldn't. But I think I was afraid that you wanted to. Because Eva, you're brilliant, you're bloody fantastic, you solved ever puzzle and every riddle and I'm just...me"   
  
It felt like a weight off his chest to say it, and in the back of his mind he wondered if he'd ever have been able to forgive himself if he'd walked out of the gates with someone else by his side.  
Eva shook her head stubbornly.  
  
"You're amazing, Oli. You never gave up. You found so many clues, you stood by me when the group wanted to vote me in to the challenge. You trusted me with your life, for God's sake. I don't know what we...what I would have done without you"  
  
Oli was no stranger to declarations of love. He had dozens from his family and his fans, and had of course returned such affections, but then, at midnight in the hotel room scented like cleaning products and dust, as the clock ticked and across the hall Joey slept soundly, Oli felt nothing he could ever say or be told could quite measure up to Eva's words.  
  
"Thank you" was all he could say, turning to meet her gaze.  
  
Their faces were so close. Eva's breath smelled like wine but there was still the faintest trace of her perfume, something sweet and earthy like sprigs of lavender or roses.  
  
"It's late" Eva murmured, eyes downcast to where Oli was holding her hand in his, gently running his thumb across her knuckles.  
  
"Yeah" he agreed.   
  
He was a fool, even now. They were survivors and confidants and allies, not _lovers_. This wasn't a fairytale. There was no prince and no castle and no storybook ending, only a house and a murderer and a survival.  
  
The wine hung warm in his chest as Eva looked up at him, biting her lip. Her hand slowly trailed up his torso, feeling the muscle and hot skin underneath his button-up. Oli's breath caught in his throat ever so slightly and Eva's eyes darted into his, wide and bright.   
  
And suddenly she had him by the collar and they were kissing, mouths open and desperate, and Oli felt like he'd been underwater his whole life and Eva was the first breath of air he'd ever tasted, vibrant and sharp and clear.  
  
Eva's slender hands deftly pushed Oli's braces down, kissing him as her hands slid up his shirt.  
  
He groaned into her mouth and he swore he could feel her lips curve into a smile.  
  
"Eva, _dammit_, wait, are you - ?" he gasped, his brain struggling to form even the simplest of thoughts.  
  
"Don't you dare" Eva said, her forehead coming to rest in the crook of his neck. Her next words were hot on his skin. "Don't you dare, Oli White, we almost _died_"  
  
Oli laughed, breathless and shaky as the hand under his shirt ran delicately across his collarbone. "Can't argue with that one" he admitted.  
  
She'd won, and she knew, even as he pulled her close and kissed her again, wondering if she could tell how much he _loved_ her.  
  
Because God, he did love her, in a broken, frightened, unshakable sort of way. Every time he looked at her, he remembered - her words of encouragement when he faced the circus, the determination in her eyes that he could see even through the pain coursing through his body in the electric chair - and he felt like he could trust her with anything, anything in the world, and maybe that was love.  
  
Eva's hands went to his buttons and before long the white shirt had fallen to the floor along with Eva's costume where it had slipped off the bed.  
  
Warm caresses gently passed over his skin and he kissed Eva again and again, knowing it would never be enough, not to sate his desire nor to show her how he felt, not really.  
  
Eva sat back for a moment, pulling a hair tie from her wrist to pull her hair away from her face and mouth. Oli kicked off his shoes and pulled his legs up onto the bed. Immediately, Eva swung a leg over so her hips were over his thoughts and her feet were on either side of him.   
  
Oli stared for a moment, and Eva laughed, softly amused. She placed a hand over his (he was struck again by how delicate her hands were) and guided it to the hem of her t-shirt.  
  
Oli pulled off the offending article and Eva leaned forward to kiss his neck. Her chest pressed against his and he could feel her heartbeat and he ran his hands up the smooth skin of her side.  
  
She hummed again his throat and he bit his lip as she sucked a bruise into the pale flesh. Oli let out a broken sigh, and when he looked back Eva had already shucked off her shorts, too. He fumbled with the clasp to his trousers, now becoming uncomfortably tight around his half-hard dick.  
  
Those deft hands were around him in an instant and a sound not unlike a yelp escaped Oli's lips. Eva only laughed breathlessly.  
  
"Stoic in the face of death, but you can't handle a pretty girl this close?" she teased, and Oli didn't feel like admitting he hadn't felt confident in anything the last 24 hours or so.  
  
_"Please, don't leave me!" he yelled, voice pitching sharply in the darkness. "Please - !"_  
  
"Oli" Eva whispered, holding his face in both hands. "Oli"  
  
It wasn't a question, or even an answer. It was an anchor to hold hold him to earth, to keep him sane.  
  
"Eva" he said back, and she kissed him hard, messy, almost desperate, and Oli realized she had shifted forward and was balancing herself over his dick.  
  
"Eva, wait, have you - "  
  
"I'm not a virgin" Eva laughed. "Don't worry. I'm on the pill"  
  
And somewhere mixed in her smile there it was again, that bright fierceness, that certainty that drew him to her again and again to steady himself.  
  
He held her shoulders gently as she lowered herself, hands splayed across his thighs. She bit her lip, and he reached up to pull it out from under her teeth, kissing her as they began to rock together and the hotel bed creaked.  
  
"Pretty sure you're never supposed to have sex in hotel beds" Eva smirked.  
  
"Why?" Oli asked, lips pressed against her throat as he shifted his hips slightly. The change caused Eva to groan as she tried to respond, her words sticking in her throat.   
  
"Cuz the walls are so thin. We probably - _fuck_ \- woke everyone on the floor" she says.   
  
Oli didn't reply, and they both knew they wouldn't have cared if the whole building woke. There wasn't any time to be embarrassed anymore. Even after the world crumbled and came back together as Eva held him tightly.  
  
He hissed as her hands trailed over his chest again, breathing in her lavender and wine and vanilla as he came, almost dizzy from the sensation of it all.  
  
Eva exhaled lightly and Oli continued to press into her. Her breath came out short and soft as she guided his hand to her clit with a gentle, shaking touch. He worked his fingers until was writhing and he felt her clench around him. She pressed her nose into his neck and moaned, soft and delicate and close.  
  
They showered separately, but not for lack of trying to squeeze both their bodies into the tiny shower as they both dissolved into tired, awkward laughter.   
  
When it was all over, they lay side by side in the bed, the sheets still tangled at their feet. They stayed like that for a long time, foreheads together, eyes half-lidded. Oli looked up at Eva, and she was smiling, tired and aching but smiling at him at all the same.   
  
He gently touched one of the bruises at her collarbone.  
  
"What're we gonna tell Joey?"  
  
Eva shrugged and leaned closer into him.  
  
"Say we got abducted by aliens" she murmured.  
  
They both giggled, and as Eva's head rested beneath Oli's chin and he could smell the honey and lilac and mint in her shampoo he took a long breath, finally safe.  
  
"We're okay, right?" he breathed.   
  
_Running through the darkened halls, the voices screaming around them as the ritual magic pulsed about the room, Arthur's cold, condescending hand on his face - _  
  
Eva sighed, hot against his bare chest. The nightstand clock buzzed and the sun began to creep over the horizon, softening her edges and making her glow.  
  
"Yeah. We are" she said.  
  
And they were.

**Author's Note:**

> Boi I can't wait for the s4 finale


End file.
